Iran Sentences Christian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani to DEATH for Renouncing Islam

Moral Low Ground is no fan of all the Iran-bashing and warmongering that’s all the rage in the United States these days. But the vile regime ruling the Islamic Republic sure does make it easy to hate it.

The latest example is the shocking, but all too common case of Yousef Nadarkhani, a courageous Christian pastor who has been sentenced to death for apostasy– renouncing Islam– after being held for 863 days behind bars. As barbaric as his sentence seems to most Western observers, the Iranians actually feel they’ve been lenient and compassionate– they’ve given Nadarkhani many opportunities to recant, but the stubborn Christian refuses to renounce his new Lord and Savior. In the eyes of the mullahs, he’s got nobody but himself to blame for his fate.

This is beyond ludicrous, especially when you consider the fact that a lower Iranian court found that Nadarkhani was never even a practicing Muslim in the first place. But his parents were, and apparently under the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law endorsed (and enforced) by Iran’s rulers, that’s enough for him to be eligible for death by hanging for apostasy.

Nadarkhani, who is 34 and has two children, was arrested in 2009 and charged with rape and extortion. Those charges were bogus; even Iran’s Supreme Court has dismissed those allegations and focused on the apostasy charge.

International pressure has, thus far, failed to help Nadarkhani. With tensions high over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and plenty of aggressive posturing by the Obama administration, there isn’t much incentive for the Tehran regime to show mercy. Especially since the victim is Iranian and this is an internal matter.

Christians everywhere had better get to praying for Yousef Nadarkhani. His days are numbered. Would that we could say the same of the deplorable regime running Iran.

 

Tagged iran apostasy, iran sentences christian pastor to death, iran supreme court, islamic republic of iran, Obama administration, obama iran, Sharia law, yousef nadarkhani, yousef nadarkhani death sentence